FC United of Manchester
FC United of Manchester
FC United of Manchester

Ask Me I'll Tell You : Michael Donohue

He’s the vice-captain of FC United and longest serving current player with 67 appearances, he scored one of the goals of the season but how well do you know Mike Donohue? Read on to find out why he chose to wear a mankini and why he doesn’t want to room with Tunde.

Q: What’s your daytime occupation?
I’m a personal trainer, obviously with the lockdown all the gyms are closed so I’m doing classes online, I do six classes a week including yoga, HIIT, and strength training sessions.

Q: How are you keeping yourself busy during the lockdown?
So other than my classes and some 1-2-1 sessions, I’m doing more training myself, I’m reading educational books and plenty of zoom calls with my family, so keeping pretty busy really.

Q: Favourite all-time television show :
It used to be Game of Thrones but I really didn’t like the last series, so I’ll go with the US Office, it’s quite light hearted. If I was going to be any of the characters I’d like to say Jim but I’m actually closer to Michael Scott the manager, mainly because he has good intentions even though he doesn’t always get it right ha ha.

Q: What’s the worst self inflicted injury you’ve had?
It would have to be the last pre-season, the week before the season started I went to the gym and it was raining as I was jogging there, and I slipped on a wet metal grid went over and tore a ligament in my shoulder which made me miss a few weeks of the season.

Q: Best music gig you have ever seen and why?
I’ve never ever been to one, the closest I got was when I got tickets for Ed Sheeran a couple of years ago but it was pre-season and a game got moved back a week so there was a clash and I had to sell them!

Q: Last film you saw?
It’s not a new film but I re-watched ’Inception’ the other day, I had seen it before but wasn’t really paying attention and there’s a few twists and turns so I thought I’d give it a proper watch, it’s a class film

Q: Biggest fashion faux pas?
I’m not really a fashion guru like the rest of the FC lads so I’ve never really bought anything flashy. I would say the worst thing I have worn is a mankini, I was taking part in a charity event for the NHS and we had a target of £500, we were miles off so I said if we get to £1000 I’d do a yoga session in a mankini and pink legwarmers, obviously the money came flying in and we smashed £1000 and I had to then do the class, luckily I had a stylish black one so it wasn’t too bad.

Q: You’re playing for Liverpool against United who you have supported since a boy, you’ve got an open goal in front of you, it’s the last minute of the game and scoring unbelievably sees Liverpool win the title and relegates United - what would you do?
I can’t play for Liverpool! No if I had to I’d do something like Denis Law, I’d score but then just turn round and jog back to my own half, couldn’t be celebrating that one, no screaming or taking my shirt off!

Q: What would happen afterwards, friends/family reaction etc?
My family support whoever I play for so they’d be ok but my Grandad wouldn’t be, he’s a lifelong United supporter, he was the one who told me about the Denis Law thing first, he really wouldn’t be happy and would want a word with me.

Q: Favourite FC moment so far?
I always remember my debut against Bradford Park Avenue, I came on and we were 2-0 with half an hour to go, we got it back to 2-1, then I played a ball into Kurt Willoughby in the box, he got fouled then scored from the penalty spot in the 2nd minute of injury time to make it 2-2. I just remember the crowd, it was the first time I’d played in such a passionate atmosphere, my first game in front of the FC fans and I though ’jeeez this is a bit different!’

Q: Would you ever consider becoming a referee if you had a good chance of making a career out of it?
No! I’ve seen the stick Pottsy gives the referees so I’m not touching that

Q: The first half hasn’t gone well, Reno is raging with the performance, he’s just kicked a football boot into one of the other players face - are you eyeballing him or looking at the floor hoping he doesn’t pick on you?
I’ve been managed by Reno for a while now so I’ve seen a couple of those and I’m one of those who stares straight ahead at the floor, I don’t want to make eye-contact with him so I’d just take the er, feedback, on the chin then go out and perform better in the second half. He wasn’t very happy at Runcorn for example but he’s very fair, when you’ve not done well he tells you, and when you have done well he also lets you know too.

Q: Is there any FC player/staff that you wouldn’t want to room with and why?
I would agree with Fin about Charlie Ennis and the smells he makes, but I think because I’ve sat next to Chas all year in the changing room I’ve unfortunately got accustomed to it, so it doesn’t bother me as much now, so I’m going to say Tunde because he never passes the ball to me during the game so I can see him hogging the TV remote too!

Q: if you could play another position on the team what would you fancy?
I have played in nearly all the positions on the pitch for FC apart from centre-half so I’d go with that just to see what it was like. If I was going to choose a position I think I would enjoy that I don’t normally play then probably right back, I did a couple of games there last season and really enjoyed it.

Q: What’s your favourite part of playing football?
It’s a really good way to take your mind off everything else, I’ve been doing it since I was a kid and the best thing in the world is playing football with your mates; that’s what it really feels like at FC, you’re playing football with your mates but there’s also three points and a passionate crowd behind you, so you really want to do your best for your team and the people supporting you.

Q: Record for keepy-ups (kick ups etc)?
I’ve done well over a thousand in one go when I was a junior at Everton, I’d do so many then get bored or my legs would be aching so I’d stop.

Q: How many press-ups can you do before your arms start trembling like a dog doing its business?
If you do proper ones so I did a press-up bleep test so you had to hold at the bottom and I got to 34, they were hard and took me between 5-10 minutes to do them, it was disgusting

Q: Any one handed ones?
16, definitely one more than Fin.

Q: Do you have any talents or abilities other than on the pitch?
I fancy myself as a chef, I always cook my own food and eat really healthily for the most part. I’ve not swapped any tips with Pottsy who I know is a keen chef but we do both have daschunds (sausage dogs) so we talk about those mostly when we’re not talking football.

Q: What’s the worst initiation you’ve ever had to do when joining a new team?
When I was at Everton as a scholar aged around 16-17, you had to get up at the staff christmas party and sing for them all. You’d wait in the corridor outside the room and get called in one by one, there was 60 people there and the worst bit was waiting for your turn, I was one of the last to go up. I sang ’I want you back’ by the Jacksons, I must have been ok because if you were bad you had to go out and do another song which was horrible, as it happens it went quite well and the chefs joined in with me!

So there you go, and obviously you all want to see him in the mankini right? (thankfully with some shorts on top)